THOMAS McLUCAS

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Contemporary wearable devices tap into more than quantitative data. The emotional attachment to the processes of homeostasis reflect our proximity to our bodies, and thus the mediation of these processes through wearables change our relationship to our natural senses. The changing proximity to the extraction of our bodily data describes a new form of emotional capitalism.

The project opens the black box of proprietary wearables and displays associated technologies spread across the body, making explicit the body being mined. The resultant device establishes a connection across the body, between ECGreadings and bodycam imagery. The device takes readings and photographs the user’s surroundings simultaneously, highlighting actors within around them. This acts as a clear trade-off between surveillance and sensing of the self. Surveillance technology in this instance acts as a way to recontextualise bodily readings, connecting statistics to a time and environment. The data collected is stored openly online, devaluing the information through accessibility. The process both reclaims the user’s biometric data but also appropriates images of other bodies, placing the user in the position of both mined body and platform.

The collected data is exhibited in a performance of the device. The strength of electrical heart signals modulates the user’s environment. The bodycam imagery and collected biometric data are reunited with the body through a projection which acts as the final transformation of the data.

Performance here